The hysteria about encryption seems to be mainly
from people who don't understand encryption.
In the real world what we actually have is:
1) amateur/cheap encryption: people relying on whatever apps or tools claim to keep their smut safe
2) professional/paid for encryption; generally implemented according to best practice
3) homebrew undocumented encryption
4) the real deal: truly unbreakable encryption.
Without pussyfooting around, the 5-eye spook centres will have a handle on 1,2 and 3. I would be mildly surprised if they were not able to gain sight of any plaintext they wished by leveraging subtle flaws in either algorithm or implementation.
That leaves (4). Which at a guess will be a tiny fraction of the total encrypted traffic in the wild.
So small, in fact, as to be it's own security risk. After all, it's much easier to organise surveillance on 5 people, than 5,000,000.
(btw, I left off 5. But that's because it's the de luxe version of secure communication, and is impossible to monitor in the first instance, so nothing 5-eyes can do about it).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
